


Popular

by Drewbear



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Alt-Power Taylor Hebert, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-02-25 08:55:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22293361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drewbear/pseuds/Drewbear
Summary: Taylor triggers with a subtle power. So subtle she doesn't realize she's using it.
Comments: 18
Kudos: 167





	1. Buzz

Taylor was having a bad day. Not her worst day; no, that had already come and gone, but a bad day nonetheless.

It was her first day back at Winslow after... well, After. And the Trio were already gearing up for something big. Taylor had managed to avoid them all morning, but lunch period was always dangerous. She had been running out of hiding places even Before, and it would only get worse as time went on and they caught her in different places. In the meantime, she'd caught snippets of low voices as the Trio's hangers-on passed her in the hallways.

"Oh, doesn't she look nice. Nothing at all like she did before."

"That time away really did her a world of good. She should've stayed away longer."

"She must be wearing something new, I swear I can smell her down the hall."

Bitches, all of them. Taunting her even after what had happened. Like she hadn't had to be carried out of the school on a stretcher by guys in hazmat suits. Well, she assumed they wore hazmat suits. It's not like she was totally coherent by that point.

Anyway, all those little sarcastic jibes just at the edge of her hearing kept winding her tighter and tighter, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Taylor had snuck out onto the roof for lunch this time, using a jimmied-open door that the stoners used. And she'd almost been successful, too. She finished her sandwich and most of her water bottle when she heard a clunk as the door opened behind her. Shit, leaving her back to it had been stupid. She turned and saw Sophia standing in the doorway, the fucking predatory grin on her face, as she called out down the stairwell.

"Found her! Get up here so we can properly welcome her back!"

Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUUUUCK! She was trapped! Nowhere she could run and even if there was, Sophia was on the motherfucking track team and could run her down in a second!

Taylor clenched up and sank into herself protectively as Emma and Madison appeared behind Sophia, panting slightly. Emma walked out onto the rooftop with a smile. Oh god, that same smile she used to have when they were friends why is she smiling like that oh shit how bad was this gonna get.

"Tay-Tay! We missed you so much while you were gone! We had a whole thing planned for you when you got back --" Fuckfuckfuck "-- but once we saw you we decided on something else." FUUUUUCK. "Now come over here. We need to get you looking nice for your first day back."

Emma pulled a makeup kit out of her backpack and oh hell to the no was Taylor letting them get anywhere near her face. She had to risk it. Taylor made a mad dash past Emma and swung her backpack at Sophia, who easily side-stepped, then pushed past Madison to run down the stairs as fast as she could. As she pushed open the door at the bottom, she heard Sophia calling down from above.

"Come back, Hebert! We just want to be friends!"

Taylor skipped school for the rest of the day. Not a super-great thing to do her first day back, but better than whatever the Trio had planned for her. Instead she spent a couple of hours at the library downtown, reading. Several times she had to read the same page over again because she was getting freaked out by the other library patrons. There weren't a lot of them in the middle of the day, and maybe she was just hypersensitive because of the Trio, but it seemed like everyone's eyes were on her. Every time she looked up, she could swear people were looking at her. The librarians, for one. That mom and her kid, definitely. The kid didn't even pretend to hide it, a huge grin on his face as he looked at her. And that creeper dude over in the corner who kept glancing down as soon as she caught him staring at her.

It was really freaking her the fuck out.

Right about when school should be letting out, Taylor set down the book she'd been unsuccessfully reading (couldn't check it out and risk the Trio damaging it) and grabbed her stuff. She joined an older black lady (who gave Taylor a weary smile when she saw her) at the bus stop outside the library and settled in to wait. The buses were reliably unreliable and it could be 15 minutes past their scheduled time before they showed up.

Aaaaand of course creeper dude was going to show up. Late 20s-early 30s, already going bald, looked like he got dressed in the dark... yeah, he was a real winner. And he kept fidgeting and glancing at Taylor when he thought she wasn't paying attention. Finally, he spoke.

"Uh, hi. I'm Mike. Who're you?"

Taylor clenched again, waiting for creeper to get the hint and leave her alone.

"Aw, c'mon, tell me your name. I just want to be friends."

"Leave me alone," she said in a quiet voice.

"What was that?"

"She said, leave her alone." The black lady butted in between Taylor and the creeper and stood like a shield for Taylor. "You don't go bothering her. Why don't you just leave."

The guy put his hands up in a mocking surrender. "Fine, fine. I don't want to bother her. She just seemed nice and I wanted to get to know her some."

The black lady glared at him. "I know exactly how men like you want to get to know girls her age. You get before I call the cops."

He backed away from the bus stop, hands still raised. "Okay, okay, I'm going." He flicked his eyes to look at Taylor. "You have a good day, miss!"

After he went back inside the library, the older lady turned to see Taylor trembling. She gathered the teenager into her arms for a quick hug, then released her.

"Oh honey, it's okay. He's gone now. You and me, we'll just wait for the bus together, alright?"

Taylor nodded. "Thank you, ma'am. It's just... it's just been a not great day. My name's Taylor, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Taylor. My name's Marie. And I'm going to guess that it being a 'not great day' is why you were here at the library instead of in school?"

Taylor shrunk into herself a little. "Yeah."

"Well, whatever it was, things can only get better from here. You seem like a nice girl. I'm sure things will work out."

"Thank you, ma- Marie."

The bus finally pulled up and the duo boarded. They sat together, Marie protectively not wanting to leave Taylor alone, and talked a little. Well, mainly Marie talked. Taylor learned all about her grandkids getting up to trouble, but at least they weren't running with any of the gangs, so bless God for that. Marie got off a few stops before Taylor, but by that point, Taylor was feeling calmer and less raw.

She walked from the bus stop to her house and saw her dad's truck in the driveway. He usually wasn't home before she was, but he'd been trying to make more of an effort since the Incident. Maybe it would actually stick.

One perfunctory dinner later ("How was school?" "Fine. How was work?" "Fine."), Taylor retreated to her room. She looked over the homework from the classes she'd made it to and it wasn't anything too complicated. She knocked it out quickly, then sat there for a while, stewing.

The Trio had obviously changed tack, trying to come at her a new way after trying to kill her didn't work. Killing her with kindness, maybe? Lord knows why they thought that would work, given everything they'd previously done to her. Maybe they were just running out of ideas.

Taylor paused a moment.

No, Emma would never stop coming up with new ways to hurt her. Sophia wasn't all that creative, just violent, and Madison's pranks were childish standbys more than anything else, but Emma could be counted on to find new ways to stab straight into Taylor's heart and twist the knife.

Fuck, she was toast.

She didn't even bother entertaining the thought of getting one of the teachers to help. None of them were worth a damn aside from Mrs. Knott and she could only guard Taylor during the one period which none of the Trio or their immediate hangers-on shared with her. So, small comfort that.

Taylor flumped down into her bed. Goddammit why did it have to be this way?

Outside, a blonde teenager stopped in front of the Hebert home and bent down to tie her shoe. A quick glance at the house, an even quicker frown passing across her face, and she continued on her way.


	2. Queen

"Taylor Hebert, please report to the front office. Taylor Hebert, please report to the front office."

She stared at the overhead intercom in disbelief. First period started _literally five minutes ago._ There was _no way_ the Trio could've already gotten her in trouble!

Taylor woodenly gathered her things together and walked up to the front of the class, feeling the weight of everyone's eyes on her. Yeah, the school's number one victim, already about to be punished her second day back after going insane. Yuck it up fuckos, it's a fucking fantastic show.

She took the hall pass from the teacher.

The walk to the front office took forever as she anticipated the worst. When she opened the door, the receptionist looked up and... smiled when she saw Taylor?

"Oh, Miss Hebert, thanks for being so prompt! I'll let the principal know you're here."

She was chipper? And friendly? This was the same woman who barely grunted in acknowledgment when Taylor usually came in.

"You can go on in, dear, she's expecting you."

With a side look at the receptionist as she passed, Taylor entered Blackwell's office.

"Take a seat, Taylor."

Taylor slowly sat down, wondering why Blackwell used her first name instead of her last, like usual. Blackwell gave her a stern look and shuffled a few papers on her desk.

"I understand that you didn't attend any of your afternoon classes yesterday."

"I can explain!"

Blackwell cut her off. "It's all right, Taylor," what "I know that it must be stressful coming back and we just want you to feel comfortable" no seriously, what "but I wanted to make it clear that you can't do that." ah that's more like it "So I had the teacher's give me copies of the assignments you missed" ?! "and you have until the end of the week to turn it in." What the everloving holy flying fuck is going on with Blackwell?!? "We want you to succeed, after all."

Okay, that was just too much. "Succeed, Principal Blackwell? You want me to succeed after every single teacher has openly ignored what was happening to me the last year and a half? You want me to succeed when I got shoved into a biohazard dump and you can't even be bothered to _do_ anything to the people responsible? You want me to _succeed_ when you yourself have called me a liar and a failure, to my face? That's how you want me to _succeed_ , Principal?"

Blackwell steepled her fingers and looked... kindly at Taylor?

"I know that things have not gone smoothly between us in the past, Taylor, but I'd like to consider this a fresh start. A blank page for you to start again. And as for the locker incident, I _will_ be looking into it, don't you worry. That something like that could happen in this school, much less to one of our best and brightest, is not something I take lightly."

Taylor stood up suddenly, shoving her chair back as she did so. What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck Blackwell called _her_ one of their best and brightest what the fuck is wrong something is wrong something is very very wrong!

Carefully taking the bundle of papers Blackwell held out to her, Taylor grabbed her backpack and spun on her heels to leave this place of wrongness as soon as fucking possible thank you very much.

"Oh, Taylor? One more thing."

Shoulders: clenched.

"Have a good rest of the day."

_NOPE! OUTTA HERE NOW THANK YOU!_

The rest of the day passed in a blur of way-too-nice people, from the teachers on down to Mr. Oblivious himself, Greg Veder. Even though she shared classes with Madison and Emma at different points in the day, neither pulled anything. Even in gym, they played dodgeball and Taylor was last one standing because no one threw anything at her. She even saw Sophia staring at her from down a hallway and instead of some cutting quip or shoulder block, she just watched as Taylor moved as quickly as she could (but not fast enough to look like she was running, oh no she had learned that lesson last year) away from her.

By the end of the day, the tension of everyone acting weird at her had built up so much that all she wanted to do was run home. She couldn't leave early, though. As much as Blackwell seemed willing to ignore that she skipped yesterday (??), Taylor doubted that Blackwell would give her a pass if she did it a second day in a row.

Collapsing into the bus seat was a relief. Only a few kids took this bus with her, and no one she knew or shared a class with. And yeah, even now they snuck little glances at her, but compared to the rest of the day, she could deal.

Taylor walked up to her house, noting that her father's truck was absent. Oh thank _god_ , she could just go collapse into her bed for an hour or forever and not deal with him acting weird too. That... that would just be too much.

An interminable amount of time later, which felt like days but was probably no more than an hour or so, Taylor heard the truck come rumbling to a stop in the driveway and her father tromping up the creaky steps to the front door. She rolled over from her position face down in the pillow and sat on the edge of the bed.

Okay, if Dad was acting weird, she would... well, she didn't know what she would do, but it might involve screaming. If he wasn't acting weird, then maybe whatever it was was just at school. Like Blackwell had hammered the fear of god into every single person to be nice to Taylor or else and nope, couldn't even complete that thought, it was too unbelievable. Just, fuck. She silently pleaded with anyone who might be listening that he wouldn't be acting weird.

"Hey, Kiddo! I got pizza on my way back. Come down and get some before it gets cold," he called from the foot of the stairs. Okay, nothing out of the ordinary yet.

Taylor carefully made her way downstairs and peeked into the kitchen, where her father was pulling plates and cups out of the cabinets and putting them beside two stacked pizza boxes from Gino's, the place they usually went to. So far so good.

"So, uh, so how was work, dad?"

"Oh, not too bad. Had to fire one slackass, but still managing to hold the crew together and working. How was school?"

Danny turned, a full plate in hand, and sat at the table. He was... a little more animated than usual, but didn't seem _weird_ like everyone else had been.

"Um, okay, I guess? Principal Blackwell called me into her office to give me assignments saved for me by the teachers, and everyone was nice to me?" She ended plaintively, still not quite believing it, hoping that her dad would get how wrong that was.

Instead he nodded firmly. "Good. Your principal promised that the bullying would stop and it looks like she's going to hold to that." His face softened. "I can't guard you at school, kiddo, but I'm glad that you have someone looking out for you now."

Okay, yeah he was acting wrong, but wrong for _now_. This was how he was before Mom died, before he broke to pieces. He was himself, just... together. For the first time in a long while. Fuck, did that count as weirdness? I mean, yeah, but a return to how he used to be wasn't a _bad_ thing, right?

One stilted conversation over dinner later, awkward but becoming less so as Taylor remembered what it was like to open up to her dad, and she went upstairs to take a look at that mess of assignments that Blackwell had handed her.

Her hand froze in her bag as she felt something foreign in there. Smooth and small and hard. Taylor pulled out... a flip phone? How the fuck did a flip phone end up in her bag? Out of curiosity, she flipped it open and the screen came on to show a text waiting.

Hey, Queen Bee! You and I have something to discuss!


	3. Reveal

Taylor looked at the phone suspiciously, then slowly tapped the tiny keyboard.

Somehow your friend's phone ended up in my bag. Can we meet somewhere so I can give it back?

That odd little task done, she pulled out her homework for real and started in on it. Barely five minutes later, the phone buzzed across the table.

You're the tall girl? Black hair, glasses, looks like she wants to fade into the background? No, this phone is for you.

Christ. Who was this and how did they-- Ah, they must've been the one to sneak it into her bag. Really fucking creepy.

Really fucking creepy, whoever you are. Why'd you give me a phone and why shouldn't I throw it away right now?

Because I like you. Because EVERYONE likes you. Or hadn't you noticed?

What the fuck. I mean, _what_ the _fuck_?! Nobody liked her except her dad! Everyone at school either ignored her or wanted her dead (hi Trio) and that kid at the library waved at her and the creeper said he thought she was nice and Blackwell actually _was_ nice to Taylor and oh holy hell _what the fuck?!_

who are you

Moments later, Call me Lisa. Pleased to meet you.

wha tdo you wnt from me

Well, to figure out why I like you, for one.

you dont know?

Not a clue. Well, maybe one, but I'd need to meet you again to make sure. Speaking of, you mentioned meeting up to hand over the phone? It's a prepaid and yours free and clear if you want to keep it, but if you still want to give it back...

Taylor paused instead of immediately and messily typing back. _Did_ she want to meet up with this Lisa? She could just throw the phone in the garbage if she didn't want to keep it. Well, maybe a dumpster. Dunno if this thing had a tracker or anything in it and why was she worried about trackers? Sure, Lisa had been creepy as _fuck_ with slipping her the phone, but she didn't seem _dangerous_.

Fuck, why not.

She'd read somewhere that if you were selling something online, to meet up for the swap in a police station parking lot so the cops were right there if something went down. Maybe...

Tomorrow. 4PM in the front parking lot of the big police station downtown. You apparently already know what I look like, but how will I know it's you?

A longer pause, maybe thirty or forty seconds, before the response came.

I'm shorter than you, blonde hair, and I'll be wearing a blue tee that says "Know It All" on the front. See you then!

Okay. So that was a thing that happened.

And fuck, there was still homework to do for tomorrow.

* * *

Taylor left school warily. People had been just as nice to her today, maybe more so, and it was _freaking her the fuck out_. Since that Lisa had told her that everyone liked her, she'd had it in the back of her head and it actually seemed like it might be true at Winslow. It wasn't like anyone's personality had changed, but people really did seem to like her. Hell, even the locker thief did something nice and mysteriously left her a... collapsible baton? Uh, what? Was that actually a nice thing or not, because Taylor was pretty sure that counted as a weapon and if there was a random locker check, she'd be fucked. After some hurried thought, she stuffed it into her backpack at the end of the day. She guessed she could use it if she ever went out at night or something and it was better than leaving it there to be discovered.

Emma and Madison were still leaving her alone, and Taylor caught Sophia staring at her a couple of times. Including right after she stuffed the baton into her bag and wow wasn't that an opportunity to get Taylor in trouble that Sophia deliberately missed. Let's leave right now before she changes her scary, intense mind, shall we?

The bus ride downtown was uneventful, though Taylor did notice people looking at her more than they usually did. Or was she just being paranoid because of what Lisa had told her? Did people normally look at other people that often and she was just reading into it? Fuck if she knew, but it bothered her regardless.

The bus station was half a block down from the police station and the bus actually pulled up at 4:10 anyway, so Taylor hurried. She didn't know if the mysterious Lisa would have stuck around for long when Taylor hadn't immediately showed up.

But when she got there, nope, nobody. Goddammit. Well what the fuck was she supposed to do now.

"Hey, Queenie!"

 _JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!_ Right in her ear!

Taylor spun around to see a short blonde teenager standing right behind her, a wide grin across her face. A quick gasp and "Don't _do_ that!" and Taylor gave her a quick look-over.  
Right height and hair and, yeah, right shirt. Really heavy makeup, though. Not as bad as Great-aunt Gretchen, who had to have caked it on with a trowel before she died, but those cheekbones did not in any way look natural.

The supposed Lisa motioned over to a bench in front of the station. "Shall we take a seat?"

Taylor grimaced and followed the shorter girl.

"So. Lisa. Satisfied by seeing me?"

That _fucking_ grin never left the other girl's face.

"Yup! You really don't know you're doing it, which is what I wondered most."

"Doing _what_?"

Lisa's voice lowered to a conspiratorial level.

"Using your powers, of course."

What. The _entire_. Fuck.

Taylor shoved the phone into Lisa's hands and abruptly stood.

"Yeah, no, can't say it was nice meeting you, bye."

She walked quickly back to the bus stop. Hopefully another one would be by soon enough that--

A quick patter of feet behind her and Lisa pulled up beside her. "You realize that right now it's basically impossible for anyone to not like you, right? I mean, you didn't know that you were doing it, but you have to have noticed people being nicer to you. Oh, you have and didn't understand and it freaked you out. And you're wondering why I'm still pestering you if I like you and that's because I might like you, but I'm still _me_ and I like needling people, even ones I like."

Taylor refused to look at her as she stomped towards the stop. Fuck, the bus was already starting to pull away. She broke into a trot and waved, she was almost there and oh my god the driver actually stopped. She stepped into the bus, panting slightly and thanked the driver in between gasps as she paid her fare.

"No prob, kid. You were almost here so I figured what the hell."

Taylor could _feel_ Lisa's grin behind her. Nope, gonna just ignore her.

With a sound of coins hitting the fare machine behind her, Taylor swore internally. Of course the other girl wouldn't leave well enough alone. She took a seat near the back of the bus and looked up, expecting Lisa to be in her space again. Instead, she was a semi-respectful two rows ahead of her. Wasn't even turning around to look at her and god _damn_ the guy seated across from her was checking her out and fuck fuck fuck gross. He was attractive, in a generic way, but the way he looked at her. Ugh.

Taylor decided to get off at the next stop and take the next bus. Get away from both Lisa and the guy.

As she walked past Lisa on her way to the front of the bus, the blonde said in a low voice, "See you around, Queenie."

Fuck. Not if Taylor saw her first.


	4. Little Miss Can't Be Wrong

Lisa was on the bus when she noticed the likable girl.

The girl got on the bus at the library with an older black woman. They sat a few rows ahead of her and Lisa's power went _bugnuts crazy_ upon seeing her.

_I like her. I shouldn't have any feelings about her, I've never seen her before in my life. Other people like her too. Everyone on this bus likes her. That woman she's talking with met her for the first time ten or so minutes ago and is never this talkative with strangers. The girl is the source of it. Generally uncomfortable being the center of attention. Not sure if she realizes she's doing it. Really subtle Master effect._

Fuck, headache already. Got to shut it down. Well, she had been using it a lot earlier for Bossman, but still. Carefully _not_ using her power, Lisa thought hard.

She hadn't heard about any new capes in the city, any new heroes wouldn't be taking the bus or, frankly, dress like that, and if the girl was a villain, Lisa would buy a hat and eat it. Of course, Masters that could affect humans tended to stay on the down low if they could help it. No benefit in advertising that you're a mind controller.

...She really ought to report this to Boss. She wasn't going to, but she ought to. Going to keep an eye on the girl though, see if she could ferret out anything else without overusing her power. Maybe overhear her name, see where she lived, anything like that. It wasn't like she was going to _out_ her or anything, but knowing stuff _was_ Lisa's thing.

About a half hour later, the girl, who was apparently not in a talkative mood with the older woman, got off on the edge of a run-down residential neighborhood. Not that it was going to take a lot of deduction, but... Lisa let slip her power just a hair.

_Lives in this neighborhood. Lives less than a quarter mile from this stop. Doesn't usually take this bus. Doesn't--_

Okay, Mr. Headache says that's enough for now. She could come back later when her head calmed down some. Back to the hideout it was.

A few hours and a short nap later, Lisa stepped off the bus at the same stop. It was starting to turn dark, but a few streetlights flickered on, so it wasn't too bad. She walked down the street, looking at each house with a very brief use of her power.

 _Single father, two small kids. Works_ \-- Nope, moving on.

 _Two women, gay, no kids. One dri--_ Next.

 _Three men, gay/bi, in a relationship, no kids._ Huh, takes all kinds.

 _Married couple, older child, teenager, boy, no other kids_. Not interested.

 _Single parent, father, teenage daughter._ Promising. Lisa stopped and pretended to tie her shoe while she unleashed. _House in state of neglect, was kept up until recently, shock/traumatic event happened, neither cares enough to make simple repairs. Sticker on the truck bumper, father is a dock worker or works for the Dock Workers Union, throws himself into his work instead of paying attention to his daughter. Not important right now, refocus. These houses usually have bedrooms upstairs. Window facing front has lacy curtains. Belongs to daughter. Silhouette matches likable girl. This is likable girl's house. Time to leave before she looks outside._

Her task completed for now, Lisa noted the address, then made her way back to the bus stop.

The next morning, Lisa woke at the crack of noon and went to make herself some breakfast. Alec was sprawled across the couch, playing some game as per usual.

"So where were you last night, Tats? Talking with the boss about another job?"

_Doesn't care, just being nosy. Vaguely interested in getting more money._

"Nah. Got distracted by something. Wanted to follow up on it while it was on my mind. Where's everybody else?"

"Don't know, don't care."

The amount of pure apathy he imbued in those four words was impressive, truly. She would've applauded him if it wasn't one of his two default states, the other being snarky-ass bitch. Which was _her_ shtick, thank you very much.

Still, she was lost in thought as she ate her coco-bits cereal. Some late night digging had uncovered the owner of the house, Daniel Hebert (thank you online tax property records), and his daughter, Taylor, as well as that she attended Winslow High School. A little reconnaissance, maybe following her on the bus home. Wait.

_On the bus from library yesterday afternoon, not school. Skipped school. Incredibly flinchy around people. Being bullied, badly. Hates being at school. Low probability she sticks out the day. Unless her power changes social dynamics around her. Even then she's likely to bolt at strangeness. Got to get over there now if I'm going to catch her at all._

Dammit, she hated when her power forced her hand. Didn't even have time to shower. Ugh. At least she hadn't been sweaty yesterday. A hoodie and ponytail would cover most sins. And off to Shithole High she was!

Forty-five minutes later (thank you ever so much, Brockton Bay transit system), Lisa walked into the main office of Winslow. The receptionist looked up, a bored look on her face.

"Show me your hall pass, please." _Thinks I'm student here. Barely remembers anyone, all the kids blur together for her. I can use this._

"Oh, I'm not a student here. I just look young. I'm bringing something my cousin forgot at home? Taylor Hebert? Do you have her schedule?"

The woman's face changed _immediately_. Much more animated and open and christ that was a fast turnabout.

"Oh, Taylor! Yes, she's such a hard worker, I'm not surprised she accidentally forgot something, what with how much she has to handle, poor thing."

 _Hebert's power at work_. No duh, power, what else can you tell? _Likability either has long range or long duration, possibly both. I've been affected all night without realizing it. Secondary effect that you don't notice you're being affected. Will have to rely on my own power to remind me of this. Might be the only one in the city who_ _ **could**_ _notice._ _ **Strong**_ _Master effect, at least a 6 or 7._

The receptionist's hand reached for an intercom microphone. Lisa smoothly said with a smile, "Oh, you don't need to call her in. If you could tell me what class she's in right now, I can meet her there and give it to her in between classes. Don't want to interrupt her learning, after all."

Such utter bullshit and no competent office worker would fall for that, but Lisa was betting that Hebert's power was just enough interference that... Yup. The receptionist was writing something down.

"She's in World Studies right now, room 112, right down the hall. The bell's going to ring in just a few minutes, if you'd like to wait here."

Lisa kept smiling. "Oh, thank you so much! But if it's no trouble, I'll just wait for her over there. That way I won't have to fight through a crowd of students."

And without waiting for a reply, she left the office for room 112. True to what she was told, the bell rang as she was walking towards it and the halls quickly became very packed. Lots of gang colors and sharpied tattoos, mixed with kids desperately trying to prove through their clothing that they weren't working class. Unsuccessfully for the most part, mind you.

Lisa finally spotted Hebert, less so through her own efforts and more by paying attention to the ebb and flow of conversations around her and how they started talking more and more about the girl as Lisa grew closer. All good stuff, too. Absolutely everyone in this school was affected, which... was kind of scary in what it said about how many people she could affect at once.

One last student got out of the way between Lisa and Hebert and yes, her back was turned away. Just slip in the burner phone and... done. Time to get out of here.

On the way back to base, Lisa prepared to send a quick text. Hmm, couldn't start off calling her by name; she'd absolutely freak out and get rid of the phone rather than reply. So what to call her... she's the new friend of everyone, so how about...

Hey, Queen Bee! You and I have something to discuss!

* * *

After a productive text chat the previous evening, Lisa was up bright and early that morning. Gonna eat her Wheaties and all that crap. Start off the day right.

Two bowls of coco-bits and a large mug of coffee later, Lisa was feeling human again.

Ugh, getting up early _suuuuucked._ At least they didn't have a job tonight. Bossman had them hit up that ABB front a week ago and they were still waiting for that to die down. It didn't escape her notice that Coil was having them target higher and higher profile gang establishments. Wouldn't surprise her if next he told them to knock over, lord, one of Hookwolf's underground dog fighting rings or something. No, not enough money in that, though Rachel would be all-in in an instant. More likely a E88 storefront or, low probability, an ABB casino. Still something she'd have to think hard about.

ANYWAY. Queenie! Sucked that she insisted on meeting at the cop shop, but not unworkable. Lisa knew all about how to misdirect attention without seeming to. Some of the best ways were to make it glaringly obvious that you were trying to avoid attention, but in such a way that they were still looking at the wrong thing. Hence, gaudy-ass makeup.

Make it look as cheap as possible, combine it with some falsies under a now-too-tight T-shirt, and now she looked like cheap trash trying and failing to look classy. She glanced down at the shirt. Well, for a given value of classy. Point was, no one would connect her to Lisa Wilbourne, Villainess Extraordinaire, who absolutely did _not_ dress like she was failing to impress.

Had to get to the location early. It always did to see how your opponent entered combat and Lisa approached most social interactions as combat she intended to win, especially against fresh meat.

Hmm. Already ten minutes late. Queenie might be getting cold feet. Or it could be the buses sucked. That worked too. Still, starting to look conspicuous in a way she didn't like...

Lisa entered the police station and asked where the bathroom was. Would give at least a ghost of an excuse for why she was still hanging around. One quick touchup of the makeup and back out the front door and who would appear but our lovely Queen Bee, looking frustrated at missing poor little Lisa.

A wicked smile flashed across Lisa's face. She quietly walked up right behind Taylor and said into her ear. "Hey Queenie!"

* * *

Okay, so that could have gone better.

Still, Queenie hadn't ditched the phone where Lisa could see and Lisa was _mostly_ sure that she wouldn't even after she calmed down. Still kinda frustrating though. Thought maybe she'd like to hang out or something. Lisa knew she was hard to get along with sometimes (most of the time) and the only girl roughly her own age that she knew was Bitch and no. Just no. Would've been nice to hang out with someone outside of cape stuff. Even if both she and Queenie were both capes it's not like they would actually be using their pow

_Queen Bee's power is still actively affecting me. She is not my friend. She very likely never wants to see me again._

Lisa grimaced. God damn but that's a fucking subtle power and she did not like it one bit. Hell, a little longer without her own power intervening and she might've actually called up Queen Bee and asked her out on a shopping date or something.

And great, all three of the crew were at the hideout when she got back. Brian raised an eyebrow at her get up and can we just not, right now?

"Don't want to talk about it," she said as she brushed by them into the bathroom where she could take off the makeup.

"But _Lisa_ , we want to admire your new _look_!" Fucking Alec. Maybe tomorrow would be better.


	5. Admissions

Taylor was as vigilant as ever as she walked through the halls of Winslow. Listening for every word, being alert for the presence of the Trio. And things were... weird. People were saying nice things about her. One girl, a member of the Trio's coterie, even complimented her new backpack with what sounded like sincerity. And there were a _lot_ of people doing it. Not everyone, but maybe a third of the people she passed? Way more than ever noticed her enough to make fun of her before.

And then there was World Studies with Gladly and Madison. Nothing happened. No gum thrown into her hair, no spilled juice on her seat, no accidental tripping, none of the petty little shit that Madison usually got away with. And then, when Gladly told them to split into groups to discuss... whatever, Madison actually invited Taylor to join her.

And was nice about it.

And didn't make even one sickly sweet little backhanded comment.

And fucking _listened_ to Taylor's suggestions. Listened and _took them seriously_.

It was really freaking Taylor _the fuck out_.

At lunchtime, Taylor didn't trust things had made enough of a turnaround to feel safe having lunch in the cafeteria, so hid out in one of the more remote bathrooms. Legs pulled up so no one could see them, pita pocket carefully unwrapped to minimize crinkling, water bottle sticking out of a side pocket of her backpack hanging on the door's inside hook. Blissful peace and quiet and she could finally fucking relax. No one knew where she was. She was safe. At least for lunch period.

Mercifully, she had the bathroom to herself the whole time. Which was... a little strange, but she'd take it. After washing her hands, Taylor walked into the hall and holy fucking Christ Sophia was right there waiting for her fuck fuck FUCK.

Wait.

Sophia shouldered past Taylor into the bathroom, but it wasn't one of the hard body blocks that she usually did. And Taylor could've _sworn_ that she heard the other girl mutter under her breath, "About fucking time," as she passed.

What the fuck was that about?

* * *

Taylor normally tried to hide behind a book on the bus ride home, but this time she people watched instead. Yeah, almost everyone was paying attention to her, at least a little bit. The only one who wasn't was a blind man sitting near the front. And she could almost feel them and their attention like a physical force. Not uncomfortable, per se, but present nonetheless. Like her head was sinking into a really soft pillow.

She was relieved when it was finally her stop and she was able to escape all the attention. A short walk and Dad wasn't home yet. Would probably be home in an hour or two, maybe longer if he got caught up in something at work. Plenty of time for Taylor to dwell on what that girl, Lisa, had said to her.

And goddammit it fit.

Her worst enemies, the girls who made her life a living hell, who had literally almost killed her, were being legitimately nice to her. Well, as nice as Sophia ever got. Acting like none of it had ever happened. Like they were her friends. Like they, well, liked her.

Creeper at the library, all the people on the bus, that driver, fucking Lisa herself _telling_ Taylor that she liked her. All of them acting like they liked her.

Motherfucker, she was a cape.

Should she register with the Protectorate? Wasn't that what capes were supposed to do? Well, non-villainous capes, anyway?

Except her power was making people like her and A) how fucking useless is that in a fight and B) people who could Master other people weren't exactly what you would call popular. No, she wouldn't be letting anyone know what she could do. Was doing. Actually, could she even turn it off? It wasn't exactly something she could practice at home and she couldn't go around asking random strangers if they liked her. Yes? What about now?

...But Lisa already knew that Taylor was affecting her and would presumably be able to tell if she stopped.

Fuck fuck fuck she couldn't remember; did she give Lisa that phone back or throw it away or yes, there it was in the bottom of her bag.

I need to talk to you.

A few tense minutes later. Little busy right now, QB. Maybe tomorrow?

GodDAMMIT! But it wasn't an outright no.

Sure. Thanks.

Okay, it wasn't like she could expect the other girl to drop everything to talk with Taylor. Even if she liked Taylor, Lisa had been clear that she was still a snarky bitch and had other things to do. Tomorrow. Taylor could wait until then. She could.

Fuck.

* * *

It was in the middle of breakfast that Taylor realized she had to be affecting her dad, too.

Mug of tea halfway to her mouth when it hit her and she spilled a little with the jerking pause. Luckily, Dad didn't seem to notice.

But fuck, if she was affecting her Dad, too, then how much of his recent change in behavior was due to her power?

A mounting horror grew in her gut. All of it. All of it had to be because of her power. Nothing else would explain the sudden turnaround. Sure he was acting better, more like his old self, but that was because she was making him feel like that.

Tears welled in Taylor's eyes as her stomach knotted. She set down her mug and pushed the cereal bowl away a little. She wasn't hungry any more.

"Dad?"

Danny hummed a bit in acknowledgment, then looked up when Taylor didn't immediately continue. "Yeah? What's up, Taylor?"

"Do you like me?"

His brow crunched in confusion.

"Of course I like you, honey. You're my daughter and the best thing in my life. What brought that on?"

Taylor had her arms crossed, rubbing her forearms with her hands, unable to look her father in the eyes. "Just... I wanted to check."

Danny was growing concerned and asked, worriedly, "Is something wrong? Is someone bullying you at school again? Principal Blackwell said they were going to put a stop to that!"

Taylor threw up her hands to stop her father's growing anger and concern. "No! No, no one's bullying me any more." She continued, half under her breath, "the opposite, actually."

He relaxed minutely. "So no one's bothering you?"

"No. They're all being really nice to me. It feels fake, so I guess I was thinking about whether or not people really like me."

Danny smiled gently and laid a hand on Taylor's trembling ones.

"Taylor, you're a likable person. With the principal keeping the bullies from bothering you, the other kids can finally see that."

She snatched her hands back and scrubbed the mounting tears out of her eyes.

"No, it's more than that. They're acting too different. They're--"

Fuck, did she really want to do this? Did she really want to ruin this good thing with her father? Fuck fuck fuck. She heaved a ragged sigh.

"Dad, I'm a cape."


	6. Experimentation

Danny looked confused over Taylor's announcement.

"Why do you think you're a cape?"

With effort, Taylor looked her father in the eyes. "You know those bullies who locked me in the locker? They're being nice to me."

"Well, Principal Blackwell said she-"

Taylor shook her head. "Blackwell's being nice too. Too nice. Nicer than I've seen her act towards _anyone._ And that's just it: _everyone_ is acting nice. People who taunted me before, who made cutting little remarks behind my back, people who never noticed me at all before. _Everyone_. There's no way Blackwell could get that to happen."

Danny looked taken aback. "Well, I admit that sounds unusual, honey, but that doesn't mean you're a cape."

Taylor sighed and recounted every incident she could think of where people both familiar and stranger were unusually nice to her. Except for Lisa, obviously. She was pretty sure the other girl was a cape of some kind, too, and didn't want to open that particular can of worms.

After Taylor finished, Danny sat in silence for a few moments.

"...I'll admit that's odd,"

"Thank you."

"But even if you are a cape, what are you going to do about it?"

She ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. "I don't know. I don't know the limits of it. I could try to test it, but I'm not really comfortable with that. If I can control it at all."

Danny gently pulled his daughter's hands free and held them between his own.

"We'll get through this, Taylor. I'll always be here for you and we can figure it out together."

Taylor smiled nervously at him.

"I hope so, Dad."

* * *

School went as weirdly as it had the previous days, which still made Taylor very uncomfortable. She was slowly getting used to it, but not entirely. Like when the Trio swept up on her right before lunch and forcibly escorted her to the cafeteria to eat with them. That was more or less terrifying. Emma trying to draw her into the conversation, which was mercifully about a movie they were planning on seeing that weekend rather than about Taylor. No mockery when she admitted she hadn't heard of it. Sophia getting weirdly excited about how she read that the lead actress did all her own stunts. Madison swooning ever so slightly over the lead actor.

Like they were friends. Like they didn't even remember all the _horrible_ things they'd done to her. Like there wasn't such _monstrous_ animosity between them previously. Taylor clenched her fists under the table and kept herself under as much control as she could. Don't act weird, don't act like a victim again, don't set them off-

"Tay-tay, are you feeling okay? You're looking a little pale. You want us to help you to the nurse's office?" Emma looked at her with such deep and honest concern that it made Taylor's stomach churn. She swallowed hard.

"No, I'm fine. Just feeling a little nauseous. Must've been some bad lettuce or something. It'll pass." Please dear god let them drop it.

"If you say so. So, what do you think about..."

The conversation continued and they never brought up her increasing discomfort again.

* * *

On the bus home, Taylor pulled out the flip phone and texted Lisa.

this a better time?

Only a few seconds' pause. Yup, I'm clear right now. What's up, Queenie?

ugh, why do you keep calling me that

Well, first of all, with what you can do you're basically Queen Bee wherever you go. Secondly, you never actually told me your name.

Huh. She hadn't, had she? Not sure she wanted to, either.

fine. you can keep calling me that

Many thanks, oh my liege. So what're you texting about, QB?

I want to talk face to face. can you do this evening?

A minute passed. Yeah, I got my schedule cleared. When and where?

Taylor thought for a moment. there's a sandwich place at the south end of the boardwalk. meet there in an hour?

Sounds good, QB. I'll be there with bells on.

Well, that went... okay. Hopefully Lisa would let her practice on her. And boy didn't that sound ominous. Taylor closed the flip phone with a snap. Hmm, maybe she should call her dad at work and let him know that she'd be out, but not for long.

Nah, she should be home before he was.

* * *

For once, the buses were in Taylor's favor and she got to Jack's Sammie Shack with about ten minutes to spare. Time enough to grab a table in a back corner. Lisa arrived a few minutes after Taylor sat down, wearing a hell of a lot less makeup and looking significantly more human as a result. Lisa immediately spotted her and bee-lined over to take a seat.

"So what's good here? First time I've been."

"Uh, it's all okay, but I usually get-"

"A falafel spinach wrap and a bottle of water. Got it. My treat." Lisa got up to go order. Fuck, but was that annoying. Taylor wondered if being annoying was part of the power or just Lisa's personality. She'd read that powers sometimes fucked with people's heads. Well, their own heads. Taylor's little problem didn't count.

She stewed, nervous, for the few minutes it took for Lisa to come back with their food. She sat down and said, "You wanted to talk?"

Taylor swallowed past the lump in her throat.

"Yeah. Um, _if_ I agreed that I was doing... what you said I was doing, do you think you could help me try to _stop_ doing it? You're the only person I could think of who'd be able to tell the difference and who wouldn't want to kill me if they stopped liking me."

A slow, vulpine grin spread across Lisa's face. "Oh, Queenie, I would love to help! Let me think a sec on what you could try."

"Well, I thought I could start with just wanting you to stop liking me?"

"Sure, let's go with that."

Taylor took a bite of her wrap and a swig of her water to fortify herself, then concentrated hard on Lisa. Stop liking her. Stop liking Taylor. Don't like Taylor. There's nothing to like about Taylor.

Lisa snorted. "Girl, you look constipated. Ease up on the 'hate me I'm so horrible' thoughts."

"How did you know...?"

"It's written all over your face. Now try again without the self-hatred."

Taylor sighed in exasperation. "Fine." Power stop working power stop working power stop work

A loud crash interrupted her concentration as a man came flying through the glass facing the Boardwalk. Outside, screaming was starting as odd-sounding gunshots rang out. Then, a voice over loudspeaker.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this can go very easily if you'll just cooperate. Fighting the Covenant is expensive and your donations will be greatly appreciated."

Lisa pulled Taylor down to the floor, hiding under their table.

"Fuck, it's Uber and Leet."


	7. Showtime

"Okay, we need to get you out of here without being spotted by their camera drone," declared Lisa, steely-voiced

Taylor nodded, slightly confused. "Not that I disagree, but why?"

"Because I have no idea how many people you can affect at once, except that it's a lot, and I have no idea what the range is, except that it's at least half of the city, and I have NO idea whether seeing you on video will trigger it. I think you'd really rather not find out."

Taylor paled. Fuuuuck. "Yeah. Lead on."

Lisa looked around the room while Taylor watched. "They're jokes, not stupid. They're going to round up everyone out of the storefronts in less than five minutes and we have to get you out of here before then. Out the back door is best, probably through the kitchen. Follow me."

Lisa immediately started scurrying towards the counter. Taylor paused half a second before following. The two ducked behind the barrier, joining a pair of employees, just as the front door vanished with a zorch. They could hear heavy footsteps pound through the opening and that same electronically-modulated voice.

"Hup hup hup, everyone out. We don't want to hurt you, but I will if I have to. Nobody tries to be a hero, nobody gets hurt."

Lisa cursed under her breath. Taylor thoroughly agreed with the sentiment. This was extremely not good. Okay, fuck, what could she do. They'd have to push open the door to get into the kitchen, so that was out. He'd check behind the counter soon, so hiding was out.

Motherfucking goddammit. She did _not_ like the plan that popped into her head.

Taylor stood up slowly, hands raised.

"Please don't hurt me." power work power work _power work harder_

She heard Lisa curse softly again, then the other girl stood up beside her, hands also raised.

On the other side of the counter was a man in some kind of power armor. Easily seven and a half feet tall, though she assumed some of that was the suit itself. His back was turned to her, but he turned when he heard her voice. There was a small nameplate on his left breastplate that read "Leet". Dear god, she hoped that motherfucking huge gun he was toting wouldn't explode suddenly.

Leet waved the gun at her, gesturing towards the group of people slowly making their way out the ruined front door.

"Get with the rest of them, citizens. Your contributions to the cause will be appreciated."

The two of them joined the small crowd and walked out of the restaurant. Taylor was sure she could feel Leet's eyes on her the entire time. She kinda hoped so, anyway. The more they focused on her, the less they focused on anyone else.

Lisa inched up next to her in the crowd and in a low voice started berating Taylor. "What the _fuck_ are you thinking?! This is exactly what I _didn't_ want to happen!"

Taylor sighed in resignation. "If they're focused on me, you can try to slip away. Maybe take some other hostages with you."

Lisa stared at her incredulously. "Goddamn heroes. Fine, this is how it's going to go. The capes are going to be here soon, making a big ol' mess, as usual. We get away in the confusion and if we can, disable the cam drone somehow. _Leave the talking to me._ "

"But...!"

"No. All your plan is going to do is get you noticed and that's the last thing we want. Now follow my lead."

The angry scowl on Lisa's face instantly switched to a simpering, scared look as she turned to face the space trooper. Under her breath, she hissed, "Try to look scared, dammit!"

As Leet waved them forward, Lisa cowered slightly in apparent fear.

"Can we... can we just give you our purses here? Please? I promise we won't run or anything! We just don't want to get hurt by the heroes when they show up. Especially not if it's Glory Girl! She doesn't pay any attention to the people she hurts and I know that you're better than her about that. So please, can we just hide here?"

Lisa held out her purse to Leet and nudged Taylor to do the same. She did as the villain's opaque visor glowed slightly from within. He stared at them for a long second before nodding.

"Fine. You're the last ones anyway. Stay here and don't get in the way. If I find out you called the cops on us," he tapped the side of his helmet, "I have your faces and will track you down. Got it?"

Lisa nodded vigorously. "Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much! C'mon, T!" She pulled Taylor back behind the counter as the armored figure stomped out after the rest of the restaurant's patrons.

Taylor was shaking slightly as she huddled behind the counter.

"How do you know my name?" she asked in a quiet, flat voice.

Lisa turned to her. "What?"

"You called me T, my actual initial. Which means you know my name. How do you know my name?"

A conciliatory look came over Lisa's face. "That's not important right now, QB. Right now we need to get you out of here before your face gets broadcast."

Taylor looked at her flatly, the growing anger behind the carefully neutral face growing.

"...No." Goddammit if you like Taylor, like Taylor enough to _tell her the truth._

Lisa jerked back a bit and responded in an equally flat tone.

"Please don't do that again. Right now I think of you as my best friend ever, the one I can tell all my secrets to, and I _know_ that's not true. So, good news, you figured out how to turn your power up," A brief pause before she hissed the next sentence, " _Now turn it down before we get killed._ "

Taylor deflated a bit. Fuck, just another schemer and bully like the Trio. And who fucking cares if Lisa figured out she felt that way. Not like she didn't already have enough dirt on Taylor to ruin her life even worse.

Lisa grimaced in frustration, ignoring the continuing loudspeaker commands outside.

"I'm not like one of those bitches who were making your life miserable. And yes, I know your name. I slipped that phone into your backpack at your school and overheard people calling you by it. But I'm not going to fucking out you or even use it until you say I can. Okay, Queen?"

Taylor continued to hunch in on herself. This was just a shit-tastic day and the only way it could get worse was--

A loud crash from outside.

A screech of crunching metal.

The sound of breaking glass as a large body flew through the windows.

A thump as the body thudded against the other side of the counter.

A low whir as a drone came in to record the action taking place.

Fizzling and popping, as if electronics were overloading and parts thereof frying and dying.

...

Taylor watched in horrified silence as Lisa's eyes grew almost comically wide in the sudden quiet.

"Fuck, run! Before something blows!"

And Taylor bolted for the door to the kitchen, heedless of the motion-sensitive camera focusing on her.


	8. Man of Aluminum

Leet kept going over the heist in his head as he cooled his heels in the cell. They kept him and Uber apart to prevent collaboration, which made sense, he guessed. As if they hadn't busted out or been busted out countless times before. Hell, at this point they might as well just have visitor badges.

Still, he couldn't help replaying what happened. Totally going to plan, equipment stable, all the victims/hostages rounded up except for those last two he let hide, everything going fine. Then fucking Glory Girl showed up and blew it all to hell, just like that one girl said.

Shit, but GG could hit hard, he thought as he rubbed his chest. Even with the power armor taking most of the impact, he had a nasty bruise forming. Even if the PRT didn't confiscate and lock away the armor, it was probably unusable at this point. And he certainly didn't have much luck repairing his tech. Maintaining wasn't as much of a problem, but repairs apparently counted as new tech so far as his power was concerned. Which completely and royally sucked.

But despite GG knocking him through a building (bitch), he found his attention wandering more and more to those two he let go. He couldn't really explain to himself why he did, other than they seemed like nice kids. Well, the quiet brunette did. The blonde had just seemed scared.

He kinda hoped that the camdrone got good footage of the brunette. She'd make a good screencap. Maybe he could track her down and recruit her to be a Princess Peach or Samus Aran for another gig. Nah, those were blondes, too. Maybe Daisy? Whatever, they could figure it out later. Use a wig or something.

Leet looked up as the cinderblocks at the rear of his cell started disappearing one by one with little electronic bleeps. Looked like whatsisface, Ben, had found the Brickbreaker paddle. Good. Leet stood up and stretched, feeling his sternum pop underneath the bruise, then waited for the hole in the wall to get large enough to crawl through.

"Good job," he told his henchman. "This is the same cell they usually put me in, so I bet they put Uber in his usual accommodations as well. Here, gimme that."

He took the luminescent white bar and hurried a couple dozen yards down the wall before toggling a switch on the end of the bar. A white cube appeared on the side facing the wall and he jostled the cube free, which immediately flew to the wall where it disintegrated a block before bouncing back. Another minute and more blocks later and Uber was clambering through. Leet toggled the switch back to catch the cube, then motioned for the henchman to lead the way to their getaway vehicle.

One thankfully uneventful ride in an unmarked panel van later and they were back to their headquarters. They had hurriedly changed into street clothes during the ride and tossed the jail jumpsuits out into an alley they drove past. From experience they knew that those usually contained trackers.

Once back at their warehouse base, the duo finally relaxed. Another successful getaway, even if the heist failed. A shame. He could've used some of that jewelry for some equipment he had in mind.

His mind wandered back to that girl as he nestled the camdrone more securely in its dock.

"Hey, Uber, can you think of any decent girl characters with black hair that we could use in a gig?"

"Uh, let me think. Tifa, of course, Ada Wong, Bayonetta... that's all I can of off the top of my head. Why? You thinking about dressing up?" Uber teased his friend.

"Nah, I saw a girl at the robbery that I might want to track down as a mook. Maybe even a mini-boss."

Leet finished fiddling with the drone and opened the data transfer and video editing programs. Commercial rather than home-coded, but he didn't need anything super fancy. As he was copying over the vid from the heist, he spoke.

"Here, let me find her on here and show you. I think she could look good as an occasional add-on."

He skipped back to just before the GG intervention and froze on a single frame of the girl. Tall, maybe sixteen or seventeen, kind of gangly. Glossy black hair of course, big glasses (maybe Bayonetta after all...), wide expressive mouth. She somehow reminded Leet of what he was like at that age. Kind of an outcast, awkward in his own body, stumble-tongued whenever he talked to anyone. Not that he knew if she was anything like that, but he just felt a kinship towards her and liked her. Yeah, he would definitely try to track her down.

Uber leaned on the back of Leet's chair as he looked at the picture. Huh. She did kind of seem like someone who would go along with their schemes. Friendly, likable type with a gray moral code. They probably wouldn't be able to do anything like that thing with the GTA prostitutes any more, but if it meant he could hang out with that chick, he'd go along with it.

"So how are you going to find her? There's only a couple thousand black-haired girls in Brockton Bay."

Leet waved his hand in dismissal. "I still have that backdoor into the city's streetlight and stoplight cameras. Hook that input up to a pattern recognition program and it's just a matter of time. Plus, her friend said her initial was 'T.' That'll help narrow it down."

Uber stood up from his lean and said, "Well, let me know if I can help. I think she'd be a great add-on as well."

Leet absently waved to his friend as he became engrossed in his video editing. Ah, there was a good full-face of her. Perfect for the facial recognition software. Hmm... he knew that she didn't want to be in the video, but she'd make a good cover image for the video. Yeah, maybe some kind of lens flare corona around her, to fit in with the Halo theme.

Three hours later, he woke up at his workbench. Dammit, Tinker fugue. What'd he make this time? Looked like... a dress? He didn't know how to sew! Where the hell did he even get a sewing machine?!

Oh, wait, that over-engineered thing in front of him was, what? An automatic sewing machine? Well, he'd never made one before, so it shouldn't explode, at least. Now what was with this dress?

Huh. That was a _lot_ of circuitry woven into it. And the collar had several hidden toggle switches. Didn't seem to do anything, but he got the feeling that it needed to be worn to work off bioelectricity or something and he was NOT going to wear a dress. He wasn't that kind of dude.

Actually, this looked about the size of that black-haired chick from the heist. Guess his power liked her too. Now to wait for the facial recognition to track her down and he'd have a signing bonus for her.

He was really looking forward to working with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not entirely sure about this one, but I'm trying to break out of my quarantine-induced writer's block.


End file.
